As the instructor performs the latest techniques in esthetic dentistry,
30 students sit at their own operatories and watch their computer monitors.
There are no heads to look over or slides to watch. When a student wants
to review a step, she can easily play back the session. As the class practices
what it's learned, the instructor can view individual operators by pressing
a button or speak to them by headset. The manikins are not "heads on
sticks," but life-like, anatomically correct patient simulators with
all corresponding morphological details.

Sound like a fantasy? Come fall of this year, such a scenario will be
fact at NJDS's world-class Advanced Technology Education Center (ATEC).
The center will bring students, alumni, and community dentists as close
to a real patient experience as inhumanly possible.

From a practicing dentist's perspective, ATEC will be one of the most
outstanding opportunities for "hands-on" continuing dental education
(CDE) in the United States today. There will be no need to travel outside
of New Jersey to learn about the latest materials, most advanced techniques,
and state-of-the-art technologies as demonstrated by experts and pioneers
in contemporary dentistry. These opportunities will be as close as the Medical
Sciences Building's C Level, home to ATEC.

Under the leadership of Dean Robert Saporito and with the assistance
of the ATEC committee (see pg. 8), the center has been planned and expertly
designed to be the premiere venue for experiencing and mastering contemporary
dentistry. From ATEC's instructor's module, students will see demonstrations
come to life, as they watch the experts work in real time with the same
materials and techniques each dentist uses at their own ATEC simulation
unit and then at their office operatories.

Esthetic dentistry will be the first in a series of ATEC- based CDE activities
presented by world-renowned clinicians. These programs, presented in a continuum
format, include several well-sequenced, clinically oriented, two-day sessions
that enable practitioners to systematically develop skills in new, complex
procedures and techniques for optimum patient treatment and practice expansion.
A small group environment will make each segment highly interactive and
provide personal attention and feedback from recognized leaders. Other CDE
continuum programs are planned on implant dentistry, endodontics, and prosthodontics.

Future ATEC activities will enable practitioners to explore new technologies,
develop and assess products and new materials, explore information technology,
access and transmit distance learning to remote facilities and Internet
sites, and experience virtual reality dentistry. ATEC also offers many opportunities
for research that might be impractical on patients, as well as clinical
technique evaluations, equipment trials, and time-motion studies.

Pre- and post-doctoral students will also reap the benefits of ATEC,
as this advanced simulation experience will be incorporated into the curriculum.
ATEC will provide dental students with early experience in close-to-patient
and operatory conditions, with students learning to work precisely and ergonomically.
All important anatomical dimensions and reference planes of the simulator
are matched to the human patient. Students, therefore, have a "predictable
patient" for the best possible treatment simulation. The goal is for
the transition from simulation to human to proceed smoothly and effectively
for the benefit of both student and patient. Students will also have guided
access to ATEC's multiple advanced technologies in the "operatory of
the future."

ATEC Committee

Dr. Martin Prager , Clinical instructor of General and Hospital Dentistry
and Orthodontics

Dr. Van Thompson, Professor of Prosthodontics and Biomaterials and General
and Hospital Dentistry

Dr. Cecile Feldman, Associate dean for the Office of Planning and Assessment